[comp.sys.mac] BUYING SOFTWARE OVER THE PHONE

mlee@marduk.cs.cornell.edu (mark lee) (10/04/89)

  In an article in NeXTWeek (inside MacWeek 9/19/89), it was mentioned
  that NeXT users may be able to BUY SOFTWARE OVER THE PHONE:

> 	  A demonstration version of the program (FrameMaker 2.0)  
>	with the save feature disabled will be included 
>	on Version 1.0 of the system software disk 
>	from NeXT.  Users can call Businessland or 
>	Computer Craft to buy the program and get 
>	documentation and a password to enable saving...
 
  My questions are:

  1. Does anyone know of a Mac software developer or publisher 
     who sells programs directly to the user over the phone?
  
  2. Are there any plans to introduce a similar distribution
     system for the Mac?

  Any information on these two questions would be greatly appreciated.

Mark Lee, 
mlee@awamore.cs.cornell.edu

shiffman%basselope@Sun.COM (Hank Shiffman) (10/04/89)

In article <32835@cornell.UUCP> mlee@cs.cornell.edu (mark lee) writes:
>  In an article in NeXTWeek (inside MacWeek 9/19/89), it was mentioned
>  that NeXT users may be able to BUY SOFTWARE OVER THE PHONE:

That's NeXT's answer to the lack of a cheap software distribution
medium (like a diskette).  Ship a disk every n months with every piece
of software in creation and then use id numbers to unlock the stuff
for which the customer has paid.  One wonders what they do about
documentation...

>  My questions are:
>
>  1. Does anyone know of a Mac software developer or publisher 
>     who sells programs directly to the user over the phone?

Image Club offers a CD-ROM with 600 fonts.  You can get access to all
600 for several thousand dollars.  Alternatively, you can pay $200 for
ten fonts and then call them later on to enable other fonts as you
decide you want them.

-- 
Hank Shiffman                                     (415) 336-4658
Marketing Technical Specialist
Software Engineering Technologies               ...!sun!shiffman
Sun Microsystems, Inc.                          shiffman@Sun.com